Wilderness.org - rainforesthttp://wilderness.org/tags/rainforest
enAlaska's Tongass National Forest: Where old-growth forests are the key to the futurehttp://wilderness.org/blog/alaskas-tongass-national-forest-where-old-growth-forests-are-key-future
<div class="field-group-format group_meta field-group-div group-meta speed-fast effect-none"><div class="field field-name-post-date field-type-ds field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Jun 13, 2012</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-node-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/bios/staff/tim-woody">Tim Woody</a></div></div></div></div><div class="field-group-format group_image field-group-div group-image speed-fast effect-none"><div class="field field-name-field-video field-type-file field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"> <p>Alaska&rsquo;s Tongass National Forest is an amazing landscape of rainforest-covered mountains and islands that provide habitat for salmon, bear, deer, wolves, and the Alaska people who have spent decades seeing the forest as a source of income from logging. But what if they were mortgaging their future all along?</p>
<p>A new report commissioned by The Wilderness Society found that in the Staney Creek watershed on Prince of Wales Island, the environmental degradation caused by the clearcutting of old-growth forests likely has caused a 60 percent decline in the number of adult coho salmon that return there to spawn. Simply put, old-growth trees keep creeks and rivers healthy. Trees provide shade, support banks, prevent erosion and, as they grow old and fall into streams, control the flow of water and provide fish habitat.</p>
<p>Damaging habitat and causing a drop in salmon populations is bad for the economy in a region where salmon fishing provides 10 percent of jobs, and many people depend on salmon to support their subsistence way of life. By contrast, the timber industry provides less than one percent of local jobs.</p>
<p>What has happened to Staney Creek has likely happened to many watersheds in the Tongass National Forest over decades of logging, and is probably still happening to other areas as commercial harvests of old-growth forests continue. Because it takes centuries for old-growth conditions to develop, logging is mortgaging the future of the Tongass by harming the resources that best support local economies.</p>
<p>&ldquo;Old-growth logging on the Tongass has come with significant cumulative impacts to critical ecosystem services such as fish and wildlife habitat, carbon storage and beautiful vistas,&rdquo; said Evan Hjerpe, a Wilderness Society economist who studies Tongass forest management. &ldquo;This study highlights the need to shift management funds away from old-growth logging toward the protection of intact watersheds and the restoration of degraded watersheds.&rdquo;</p>
<p>In other words, in addition to seeing the forest for the trees, it would be wise to also see the forest for its salmon; especially if you&rsquo;re an Alaskan who wants your children and grandchildren to have opportunities to work in a prosperous fishing industry, harvest their own food from the forest, or just know that there are places in the world where nature still thrives.</p>
<p>By producing sound science, The Wilderness Society is working to give the U.S. Forest Service and the residents of Southeast Alaska information they can use to make the best possible decisions about how to manage amazing landscapes like the Tongass and, hopefully give the region a brighter and more sustainable future.</p>
</div></div></div>Wed, 13 Jun 2012 20:41:35 +0000Tom Steinfeldt2105 at http://wilderness.orghttp://wilderness.org/blog/alaskas-tongass-national-forest-where-old-growth-forests-are-key-future#commentsAmerica’s Rainforest Under Threat: How Alaska’s Tongass National Forest needs your helphttp://wilderness.org/blog/america%E2%80%99s-rainforest-under-threat-how-alaska%E2%80%99s-tongass-national-forest-needs-your-help
<div class="field-group-format group_meta field-group-div group-meta speed-fast effect-none"><div class="field field-name-post-date field-type-ds field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Mar 5, 2010</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-node-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/bios/staff/laura-bailey">Laura Bailey</a></div></div></div></div><div class="field-group-format group_image field-group-div group-image speed-fast effect-none"><div class="field field-name-field-content-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="http://wilderness.org/sites/default/files/styles/blog_full/public/legacy/profiler/TongassNationalForest-HenryHartley-WikimediaCommons.jpg?itok=oM8S1MwZ" alt="" title="Tongass National Forest. Photo by Henry Hartley. Wikimedia Commons." /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-video field-type-file field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"></div></div><div class="field field-name-media-description field-type-text-long field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p>Tongass National Forest. Photo by Henry Hartley. Wikimedia Commons.</p>
</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-credit field-type-text-long field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"></div></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"> <p>Centuries before chainsaws were invented and logging corporations founded, the towering trees of Alaska&rsquo;s <a href="http://www.fs.fed.us/r10/tongass/forest_facts/forest_facts.shtml">Tongass National Forest </a>were growing. Trees that soar to the sky today were already shooting into adolescence when Columbus sailed the seas.</p>
<p>The gentle giants amaze visitors with their arresting size &mdash; some trunks are as big as dining room tables &mdash; but these rare trees are a disappearing breed.</p>
<p><strong>About</strong> <strong>50 percent of the Tongass&rsquo; largest trees are gone forever</strong>, victims of intensive logging practices that began half a century ago.</p>
<p>What&rsquo;s left of this majestic, ancient forest remains threatened by logging.</p>
<p>And despite recent collaborations that would finally ease logging in the forest&rsquo;s oldest areas, <strong>legislation in the U.S. Senate threatens to open up thousands of acres of public land to more intensive logging practices</strong>.</p>
<p>Introduced in April, 2009 by Alaska Senators Lisa Murkowski and Mark Begich, the legislation proposes to give more than 65,000 acres of some of the oldest, most biologically rich lands in the Tongass to Sealaska Corporation, a native corporation that has already harvested at least 189,000 million acres of the Tongass.</p>
<h3>America&rsquo;s Rainforest at a Crossroads</h3>
<p>The Tongass has reached a critical crossroads.</p>
<p>This forest once sprawled across southeast Alaska carpeting the state&rsquo;s panhandle with thick legions of soaring spruce, hemlock and cedar.</p>
<p>Today the Tongass covers 80 percent of southeast Alaska&rsquo;s coastal terrain, inland mountains and much of the Alexander Archipelago. It is the <strong>largest remaining temperate rainforest in the world</strong>.</p>
<p>But heavy clearcutting has gouged much of the oldest forests in this stunning landscape. Sweeping views are marred by awkward patchworks of clearcuts. A network of decaying logging roads worms through the land creating erosion on the way.</p>
<p>Despite years of logging, <strong>wild and timeless places </strong>do persist in the Tongass. This forest of all forests continues to hold value that far transcends what a logging company can fetch for its harvested timber.</p>
<p>Besides possessing <strong>some of the world&rsquo;s most incredible trees</strong>, the Tongass is an enchanting and fertile land of water, woods and mist. It encompasses thousands of islands, fjords and waterways where steep coastal cliffs and fog-shrouded woods creep out to water&rsquo;s edge. Sea otters and humpback whales make regular appearances under the shadows of coastal trees, while further inland, stunning mountain vistas mingle with glaciers and green valleys.</p>
<p>The very age of this forest is what creates the extreme biodiversity the Tongass is known for. The forest provides rich conditions for larger wildlife and for undergrowth and soils that teem with tiny life. Moss creeps into every wooded crevice, while streams swell with salmon allowing black and brown bears to thrive. Bald eagles, wolves, deer and many other animals abound here as well.</p>
<p>The forest has also nurtured and sustained local people for centuries and remains the basis for economic opportunities. And its unique mix of land and water, trees and animals offer the trip of a lifetime for cruise goers and wilderness lovers who enjoy unparalleled adventures from kayaking and fishing to hiking in the shadows of giant trees.</p>
<h3>Saving This Rare Forest</h3>
<p><img height="185" alt="Tongass National Forest. Photo by John Schoen." width="300" src="/sites/default/files/legacy/userfiles/Tongass_King_Salmon_JohnSchoen.jpg" />The Wilderness Society is in the midst of a major effort to ensure sustainable forest management on the Tongass.</p>
<p>Expert staff in our Alaska office are working with locals, the Forest Service and other groups, to create <a href="tongass-national-forest-finding-common-ground">innovative solutions</a> to traditional rivalries between timber interests and conservation groups. Together, we have been <strong>building a sustainable future </strong>that transitions the timber industry from logging in ancient forest to sustainably harvesting younger trees. Read about <a href="our-vision-tongass-national-forest">our vision</a>.</p>
<p>Together we are making significant progress in resolving long-standing conflicts between competing groups in the Tongass, but <strong>the Sealaska bill would undermine much of that</strong>, all for the sake of one single interest.</p>
<p>There is hope for saving the last of America&rsquo;s rainforest. But we must act now to defeat this bill. <a target="_blank" href="http://action.wilderness.org/campaign/tongasscampaign">Please click here to help us save the Tongass.</a></p>
<p><strong>* Correction:&nbsp;</strong>In the original version of this article, The Wilderness Society incorrectly stated the number of acres that Sealaska has clearcut. We regret the error. To be more precise, Sealaska's representative testified before Congress that the company has harvested 189,000 acres of the 290,000 acres they own, including more than 81,000 acres of clearcuts.</p>
<p><strong>photos:</strong><br />Tongass National Forest. Photo by Henry Hartley. Wikimedia Commons.<br />Tongass National Forest. Photo by John Schoen.</p>
</div></div></div>Fri, 05 Mar 2010 19:45:50 +0000102985 at http://wilderness.orghttp://wilderness.org/blog/america%E2%80%99s-rainforest-under-threat-how-alaska%E2%80%99s-tongass-national-forest-needs-your-help#comments